The 12 Game Gifts of Christmas: 10th Day

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Ten Ticket to Ride games, nine Catan expansions, eight Unlock! escape games, seven Exit: The Games, six sets of Card Sleeves, five Zombie Dice!, four Games for Two, three Dice Sets, two Letters to Santa and a Hanabi co-op card game.

Ticket to Ride is one of my favorite games of all time – in all its many forms! I never tire of playing it, so it of course it made it into my song. Ticket to Ride is a set collection, route-building game. The designer, Alan Moon, somehow came up with the perfect formula balancing interesting game play with simple, streamlined rules.

Your goal in Ticket to Ride is to score the most points, primarily by claiming routes and completing tickets. Each Ticket to Ride game also provides one or more end-game bonuses such as for longest route, most completed tickets, etc.

Game Play

Each player starts the game with a certain number of Tickets showing two cities that need to be connected (should you decide to keep the Ticket). For each Ticket you complete by the end of the game, you score the points indicated on the Ticket, for each Ticket you fail to complete, you lose that number of points. Players also each receive some colored Train cards and can draw more during the game – it’s one of their possible Actions. The colored Train cards correspond with the colored spaces on the board of the routes you can claim.

All Ticket to Ride games allow you to do one of the following actions on your turn:

Take 1 or 2 Train cards from the face-up selection of 5 cards, the top of the deck or a combination of both. A face-up Locomotive is wild and counts as taking 2 cards.

Claim a Route by laying down cards of the color and quantity corresponding to the entire route between two adjacent cities and placing your colored trains there. Grey routes can be claimed with a set of any one color of Train cards.

Take Tickets. You’ll usually only do this when you’ve completed or almost completed your initial Tickets. Each Ticket to Ride game is a little different as to how many Tickets you draw and how many you must keep.

When one player has two or fewer trains left, after claiming a route, all players, including that player get one more turn. Then the game is over. Players then each reveal their Tickets, one at a time, tracing the path between the cities depicted on their Ticket – or not if they weren’t successful – and scoring or losing points accordingly. Finally, any bonuses are awarded and the player with the highest scores wins.

And that’s the game in a nutshell. I don’t exactly know why I never get tired of playing Ticket to Ride. I do like to mix it up and play the different maps, though.

Ticket to Ride Stand-Alone Games and Map Expansions

There are several stand-alone Ticket to Ride games: the original USA, Europe, Nordic Countries, Rails & Sails, and the latest – Germany .

Numerous Map Expansions are available, including: Legendary Asia & Team Asia (my favorite), India & Switzerland, Heart of Africa, Nederlands, United Kingdom & Pennsylvania and France & the Old West. All of the Map expansions can be played with either the original USA Ticket to Ride or Ticket to Ride: Europe. You use the train pieces, scoring markers and Train cards from either base game. Each Map expansion includes the necessary map board, Tickets and any other special components needed to play it.

Every expansion and stand-alone game provides its own additional set of rules, adding just a little more complexity, while building on the same simple game play.

All in all, despite its age, Ticket to Ride remains a current favorite.

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